The Azusa Pacific Blog

DAY 24 (Aug. 24): Volleyball’s New Look

The Felix Event Center is one of the premier NCAA Div. II venues on the west coast, playing host to the Azusa Pacific men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and acrobatics & tumbling teams. And while it has been a great home to the Cougar volleyball program since opening in 2001, it will undergo a bit of a change for Azusa Pacific’s 11 regular season home matches.

With a seating capacity of 3,500, the Felix Event Center is the fifth-largest arena in the Pacific West Conference (trailing Grand Canyon’s brand new 5,000 seat facility and Dixie State’s 4,779-capacity Burns Arena), which isn’t exactly ideal for viewing volleyball.  So to create a more fan-friendly environment head coach Chris Keife opted to make some minor changes for gamedays.

In doing so he, along with assistant coach Jimmy Lundgren, came up with a plan to transform the spacious arena into an 800-person capacity setup, aimed to bolster the overall experience for the fans and players. Using a new curtain on the south side of the arena, and shutting off the upper level of the Felix Event Center with blackout curtains, all fans will be seated in a more intimate arrangement along the north, west, and east sides of the lower level.

“We’re really excited. Jimmy and I have been talking about this for over a year. Our event center is one the best arenas in the PacWest, but it’s probably too spacious for volleyball,” said Keife, who earned his 200th victory at Azusa Pacific in 2011.

“We wanted to create an intimacy and a closeness. Cutting off some of the depth and emptiness was the goal. We did a great job of figuring out where we wanted to go and it’s going to bring a new excitement to the university.”

The Cougars have put together a 97-32 record at home over the past 10 years, and in the last four seasons are a combined 47-10 at the Felix Event Center.

“The new layout for volleyball matches will enhance an already great experience for our fans and players. We were looking to create a more intimate setting, and with this new design we’ve accomplished that goal,” said Director of Athletics, Gary Pine.

The first chance to see the new layout will be the Cougars’ home opener against California Baptist on Sept. 11, which also happens to be Azusa Pacific’s PacWest debut.

Tags: Athletics, felix event center, PacWest, volleyball

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2012 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Alumni and Parent Relations, APU Alumni, APU Community, APU Parents and Family, Athletics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.